Scoop: Trump team considers nationalizing 5G network
Scoop:
Trump team considers nationalizing 5G network
Trump national security officials are considering an
unprecedented federal takeover of a portion of the nation’s mobile network to
guard against China, according to sensitive documents obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: We’ve
got our hands on a PowerPoint deck and a memo — both produced by a senior
National Security Council official — which were presented recently to
senior officials at other agencies in the Trump administration.
Two
options laid out by the documents:
- The U.S. government pays for and builds the single network — which would be an unprecedented nationalization of
a historically private infrastructure.
- An alternative plan where wireless providers
build their own 5G networks that compete with one
another — though the document says the downside is it could take longer
and cost more. It argues that one of the “pros” of that plan is that it
would cause “less commercial disruption” to the wireless industry than the
government building a network.
Between the lines: A
source familiar with the documents' drafting says Option 2 is really no option
at all: a single centralized network is what's required to protect America
against China and other bad actors.
- The source said the internal White House
debate will be over whether the U.S. government owns and builds the
network or whether the carriers bind together in a consortium to
build the network, an idea that would require them to put aside their
business models to serve the country's greater good.
Why it matters: Option
1 would lead to federal control of a part of the economy that today is largely
controlled by private wireless providers. In the memo, the Trump administration
likens it to "the 21st century equivalent of the Eisenhower National
Highway System" and says it would create a “new paradigm” for the wireless
industry by the end of Trump's current term.
- But, but, but: The
proposal to nationalize a 5G network also only covers one part of the
airwaves; there’d be other spaces where private companies could build.
The PowerPoint presentation says that the U.S. has to build superfast 5G
wireless technology quickly because “China has achieved a dominant position in
the manufacture and operation of network infrastructure,” and “China is the
dominant malicious actor in the Information Domain.” To illustrate the current
state of U.S. wireless networks, the PowerPoint uses a picture of a medieval
walled city, compared to a future represented by a photo of lower Manhattan.
The best way to do this,
the memo argues, is for the government to build a network itself. It would then
rent access to carriers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. (A source familiar
with the document's drafting told Axios this is an "old" draft and a
newer version is neutral about whether the U.S. government should build and own
it.)
- It's a
marked shift from the current system where those companies each build
their own systems with their own equipment, and with airwaves leased from
the federal government.
- Nationwide standard: the federal
government would also, according to the memo, be able to use the banner of
national security to create a federal process for installing the wireless
equipment, preventing states and cities from having their own rules for
where the equipment could go.
The bigger picture: The
memo argues that a strong 5G network is needed in order to create a secure
pathway for emerging technologies like self-driving cars and virtual reality —
and to combat Chinese threats to America’s economic and cyber security. A
PowerPoint slide says the play is the digital counter to China’s One Belt One
Road Initiative meant to spread its influence beyond its borders. The documents
also fret about China's dominance of Artificial Intelligence, and use that as
part of the rationale for this unprecedented proposal.
- There’s even a
suggestion that America’s work on a secure 5G network could be exported to
emerging markets to protect democratic allies against China.
- “Eventually,” the memo says, “this effort
could help inoculate developing countries against Chinese neo-colonial
behavior.”
AI arms race: The
memo says China is slowly winning the AI “algorithm battles,” and that “not
building the network puts us at a permanent disadvantage to China in the
information domain.” There is a real debate to be had over China and AI, but
it’s unclear what at all that has to do with a mobile network.
Reality check: The
U.S. wireless industry is already working on deploying 5G networks, with
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, for example, investing heavily in this area.
The process for setting 5G standards is well underway. Korea has been at the
forefront of testing, as have Japan and others. It's not clear a national
strategy would yield a 5G network faster or by the memo’s 3-year goal.
Go deeper:
- How
5G works
- The
concerns raised about nationalizing 5G
- Read the full memo below
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